The 83 Chinese patients with schizophrenia participating in the study had, on average, a 4.6% 10-year CVD risk, according to the Framingham risk score, compared with 3.1% for 243 mentally healthy individuals from the Chinese community, who served as controls.

The results, published in Schizophrenia Research, also showed that for schizophrenia patients, the difference between their vascular age (age of the person with the same predicted CVD risk, but with all risk factors at normal) and their actual age was significantly greater than that for controls, at 4.6 years versus 0.6 years.

Rates of smoking were significantly higher among patients with schizophrenia than controls, at 24.1% versus 7.0%, as were rates of the metabolic syndrome, at 44.6% versus 16.9%, reflecting a threefold increased risk.

The researchers note that men with schizophrenia were a significant four times more likely to smoke than controls, whereas rates were similar among women with and without schizophrenia.

With regard to the metabolic syndrome, the individual component most closely associated with CVD risk was central obesity, with 64% of patients, compared with 45% of controls, found to have central obesity. It was particularly prominent in female patients, affecting 88% compared with 54% of women without schizophrenia.